I've just purchased my copy of "Back To The Drive" from Toombul Music (one of
the largest music retail stores in the Southern Hemisphere), and I thought I'd
give you a track-by-track analysis on it:

Back To The Drive: Wow!! The intro to this track is electric with the cacophony
and Suzi's screaming intro from "Devil Gate Drive" sampled. This track grabs
you instantly and is designed to rock your head right into the floorboards. A
shame that Nicky Chinn wasn't there to co-write it. But it's quite easily the
best song that Suzi has done since "Lipstick". 10/10

15 Minutes Of Fame: There's a nice Greek folk sound to this track, and a very
astute look at the disposability of the modern music scene of which Suzi has
been one of the survivors. Nice track to sing along to in the pub waving a
schooner about. 8/10

Duality: Suzi experiments with an Indian raga before taking it into a
psychedelic stoner track. Her sibilant vocals add to the dark and intriguing
ambience of this track. 9/10

I Don't Do Gentle: Showing a love for big-band jazz and blues, this reminds me a
bit of "Brain Confusion" and "All Shook Up". Definitely one that you can throw
your partner over your head and under your legs to on the dancefloor. I love
this track! 10/10

I'll Walk Through The Fire With You: I think that Laura could have featured a
lot more on lead vocals on this track, and she has a fantastic soulful voice.
It's a rather standard 80's sounding track that sounds like it could have been
from the "Oh, Suzi Q" album. 7/10

Wasted Moments: The chugging guitar intro to this song rocks, and it's
definitely one of the stronger tracks even though it's lyrically sparse. 10/10

No Choice: It's one that needs repeated listening before you can decide whether
you love it or hate it. I think it's okay 7/10

Sometimes Love Is Letting Go: One of the few tear-jerking moments from Suzi up
there with "Catsize", "Lonely Is The Hardest", and "Starlight Lady". It has a
hymn-like stillness to it, and sounds like Bette Midler's "the Rose" in some
parts. It's not often we hear this side of Suzi, and I think it'd make a great
single. 9/10

Dancing In The Wind: Apart from the intro, this track tends to drag on a bit.
Not one of the better songs that she has come up with, but that's my opinion.
6/10

Free The Butterfly: Beautiful, and one of her most personal songs to date.
10/10

Born Making Noise: Great closer to the album, and I love the blues harp playing
on it. It sounds a little bit like Bon Jovi's "Bad Medicine", except a little
faster. That's not a bad thing, since it was one of my favourite songs as a
17-year-old. 9/10

Thanks Suzi, Laura, Len, Andy, Steve, Mike and the others for bringing a smile
to my face for the first time in a long time. I hope that this album will do
the rounds for Suzi and get her back on the throne again!! :-D

Ron & Russell Mael from Sparks have experienced a renaissance over the past year with their appearance in British Whale's cover of their 1974 classic "This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us". Something must have made their ears burn with all the time they spent languishing in the dance scene to want to return to their rock roots, but without being too retro.
Opening up with the originally proposed single "Dick Around", this is quite possibly the best Sparks track to come out in years. It's chopping and changing moods from a brutal smack in the face operatic track to a blistering thrash metal stomper shows that Sparks aren't afraid to rock out or keep the listener guessing as to what could happen next. "Perfume" sounds like a cross between Mud's "Tiger Feet" and Lou Bega's "Mambo No. 5" with an instantly catchy piano track, some nice growling guitars and Russell proposing to a woman because of her lack of interest in perfume and his dislike of the past.
"Metaphor" is a grower, but it owes more to a genre that Sparks had previously ignored: American AOR. Nice to hear Russell's trademark falsetto back on this track, as well as the guitar solos.
Sparks go protest rock on the Latin-Americanish "Baby Baby (Can I Invade Your Country)", which sounds okay on first listen but the joke quickly wears off. "Waterproof" goes back to their heyday of 1974 with it's cute singalong of being a heartless person until it goes into a dizzying rock opus with pounding drums and fuzzed guitars.
Other tracks like "Hey Kitty", "The Very Next Fight" and "As I Sit Down To Play The Organ At Notre Dame Cathedral" take a bit of getting used to if you are not accustomed to Ron Mael's irreverant songwriting style. They are at best quirky, and at better demanding of your intellectual attention.
This album might not make major inroads in the Top 40, but it is certainly one that challenges your pop sensibilities. You can just see Ron & Russell having the last laugh at fellow po-faced indie bands, and jumping with joy to have an album that has been so well-received by a once lambasting press that shat on them for selling out to disco. Rock, rock, rock with the Maels! You won't be disappointed!

The debut album by The Sweet showed very little signs of the band that most of the public remember them by by today's standards. Being the first band to be produced by bubblegum/glam gurus Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, this album is a surprisingly pleasant listening gem with the nursery rhyme-ish "Co-Co", and "Chop Chop", as well as a tear-jerking rendition of "Tom Tom Turnaround". Perhaps the most unusual thing about this album was it's emphasis on Country & Western and easy listening with some nice down-home guitar playing from Andy Scott and the late Mick Tucker's solid percussion. Brian Connolly wasn't the greatest singer of the 70's, but his voice had an almost effete charm to it before he turned to the heavy rock screaming. I doubt that this album is one that people who like to stamp around to the likes of "Hell Raiser" or "Ballroom Blitz" are going to like, but it'd appeal to the devoted fan who is interested in the band's heyday and the gradual evolution of them from a humble easy listening band to the rock stadium gods for an hour they became by the end of the 70's.

The difficult 'third album' for the brothers Mael was the one that finally broke them into the superstar category. Forced to leave their old band behind in L.A. after they could not procure work permits in the U.K., the Maels signed with Island Records with a makeshift band of musicians whom their then-manager John Hewlett had found in a pub doing Sparks covers. Recorded by candlelight in the final throes of 1973, the album was quite unlike anything that came from the glam rock era in which Sparks were thrust.
Opening with the baroque rock epic "This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us" complete with Russell Mael's falsetto vocals and Adrian Fisher's howling epileptic guitar solos, the song blasted straight into the charts at No.2 and stayed in the Top 40 for 10 weeks. The album is a skewed classic of perverse pop delights glorifying masturbation and topless girls ("Amatuer Hour"), siding with the fall guys ("Here In Heaven"), Albert Einstein's theory of relativity ("Talent Is An Asset"), and the pitfalls of hanging out with the out crowd ("Thank God It's Not Christmas"). It was a shame that the guitarists were not retained for long, as they were just as much an integral part of making this album a success as Ron & Rusell's bitter sophistication both onstage and offstage. Despite re-recording "This Town" several times throughout their career, Sparks are certainly not one-off classic wonders. 2006 will see their new album 'Hello Young Lovers' released, with an almost promise of a return to their rock roots after many years of being in the electronic music field.

Danielle Dax is one of the last eccentric British ladies, and this album proves it. The track "Flashback" is basically her biography, showing her discontent at being labelled and categorising her compositions. Indeed, this album is a disturbing myriad of pop unpredicatblity with songs ranging from the 70's Gary Glitter-inspired pastiche glam rock of 'Cat House', the gospel funk of 'Big Hollow Man', the gentle lullaby of 'When I Was Young' to the harsh Eastern mantras 'Bed Caves' and the terrifying flute solos on 'Sleep Has No Property'. Although this album was released when Dax was flirting with commercialism (it was originally on Sire Records in the U.S.), it is nevertheless a poignant life-searching album with beautiful lyrics combined with quirky British surrealist pop that nestles in closely with the likes of Morrissey, The Kinks and Prefab Sprout. Definitely not an album to miss if you like your female pop stars sensual but with a sense of humour and attitude.